Kenneth Leroy Krause

Loving dad and grandfather Kenneth Leroy Krause died of natural causes on May 27, 2025, after a month of hospice care and a day before the 4-year anniversary of his beloved wife's death. He was 81 years old.
Ken was born on October 30, 1943, in Vanport, Oregon, and his family moved to north Portland in 1945. He attended Chief Joseph Elementary, Peninsula School, and Roosevelt High School, played on sports teams or had his nose in a book a lot, was admonished for talking too much in class, and once was randomly shot with a BB gun.
Ken then attended Stanford University where he obtained a degree in Political Science. While in graduate school at University of Oregon, he submitted an application to the National Teacher Corps and abruptly ended graduate school when the Corps asked him to report to Providence, Rhode Island. There he met his wife Kathy; they were married for nearly 54 years.
While working in the Teacher Corps he took education classes at Rhode Island College and then obtained a master's degree in education from Brown University. He began his teaching career at Perry Middle School in Providence, and he worked part time for Pinkerton as a security guard. While in Rhode Island Ken and Kathy had two daughters and at least one guinea pig. They all spent some time in Syracuse, New York, where Ken took science courses; he specialized in teaching middle-school science throughout his career.
In 1974 Ken and Kathy and their girls moved to Milwaukie, Oregon, and Ken began his career teaching for the Portland Public Schools district. He taught at Hayhurst and Maplewood and then became founding faculty at Harriet Tubman, from which he retired.
Ken loved spending time outside and encouraged his family to love time in nature. Honeyman and Tumalo State Parks were favorite camping destinations, as well as Ramona Falls for hikes. Once, memorably, he forgot the tent poles and the family slept on top of the tent under the stars.
Ken was a stellar dad. He read to his daughters almost every day, helped them care for six different species of pet (not all at once!), patiently answered all their questions without embarrassment, greeted broken dishes with equanimity, and stepped in as their Girl Scout troop leader when it seemed that no one else wanted to do it. He might have been the first male Girl Scout, at least in Oregon.
He was also a devoted husband, writing love letters to his wife on every holiday and her birthday, and caring for her attentively as she developed mental illness and then dementia.
The one low point in this wonderful existence might be the time he shaved off his beard, which his family had never seen him without. Once it grew back, he never shaved it off again.
Ken is survived by his daughters Heidi (Russell) Senior and Rachel (Keith) Jackson, five grandchildren, and his sisters Nancy (Lou) Schwab and Norma Jean Krause.
A memorial service will be held and the date is yet to be determined.
To send a flower arrangement in memory of
Kenneth Leroy Krause, please click here to visit our sympathy store.
Hustad Funeral Home